The Police Community Relations Committee, PCRC South-South chapter has passed a vote of confidence on Rivers State commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu, saying that the call for his redeployment was needless, “mischievous and misleading.”
The S-South chapter, which is made up of 36 Delegates drawn from Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Rivers States, stated this in a communique after a one day conference at the Police Officers Mess in Port Harcourt.
1. It stressed support for Mbu and urged him to continually work for the peace, safety and security of the state and its people. I, however, urged the police to “create organizational mechanisms to build confidence and foster on–going partnership drives with different segments of the community.”
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3. It commended the Inspector General of Police, Mr. M. D. Abubakar for “repositioning the Nigeria Police Force to be more effective and efficient in dealing with the security challenges facing the country…”
Members of the committee led by its National Vice Chairman South-South, Hon. (Chief) D.K Badom paid a courtesy visit to Mbu, and gave him the PCRC Peace Torch to CP.
The communiqué reads in part: “The conference called on the police to create organizational mechanisms to build confidence and foster on–going partnership drives with different segments of the community.
4. “The conference noted that the security and social challenges facing the country were still enormous with unemployed graduates and retrenched workers swelling the labour market and called on all Nigerians to bury personal, religious’ ethnic and political differences and work for a united and strong Nigeria that Africa can be proud of.
5. “That the PCRC should establish closer ties with the media, with the aim of properly educating members of the public on the activities of the Police and when the public should draw the line between political and security issues
6. “That the PCRC in the South-South Geo-Political Zone should create and pursue harmonized programmes that would engender its mandate of promoting peace, conflict resolution and crisis management in Niger Delta Communities.
7. “The conference strongly condemned the rifts within some State PCRCs and encouraged internal cohesion among State PCRC executives so they could be focused on their assignments of assisting the Police build trust with Community folks and also make positive impact in their States.
8. “Delegates noted that calls for the redeployment of the State Commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu was mischievous and misleading as facts on ground show that Mr. Mbu exhibited optimum and unassailable professional standards in the discharge of his duties in Rivers State. Accordingly, delegates passed a vote of confidence on CP Mbu and equally commended him for giving facelifts to facilities in the State Police command as well as repairing Armoured Personnel Carriers and other abandoned vehicles he inherited from his predecessor.
9. “Delegates called on all communities in the South-South Geo-Political Zone to give maximum cooperation to the Police as they tackle the security challenges in the region.
“The Delegates called on Boko Haram insurgents in North-East Nigeria to borrow a leaf from Niger Delta militants who surrendered their arms to embrace peace and the Federal Government’s amnesty programme and do same for peace to reign in North – East Nigeria.
10. “Finally, the conference resolved and set up three different committees on Leadership, Niger Delta and Welfare to chart a new course that will reposition the PCRC, South-South region for the emerging security challenges in Nigeria, especially as it affects the Niger Delta region. The Chairman of Police Community Relations Committee, Rivers State. Hon. Austen Young heads the PCRC leadership Committee.”
